


Make it Easy (Say I never Mattered)

by ClykeLanes



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: College Students being dorks, Jason Grace is a Dork, Jason is a fanboy what a nerd i love him, M/M, More Tags to be added as I go, Nico di Angelo makes covers and everyone loves him, Percy Jackson not quite understanding that he is senpai, Pining, Piper needs to be appreciated more, Will try my hardest to not make this sad ya'll, Youtuber AU, very lowkey based on phan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-11 12:06:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11714085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClykeLanes/pseuds/ClykeLanes
Summary: Perhaps it was because Percy was such a talented creator. It also might have been because Jason was bored and had nothing better to do than binge watch his videos.But then again, it was probably because Jason Grace was 100% unironically gay for Percy Jackson.--Alternatively, the one where Jason is a YouTuber who has been watching Percy Jackson's videos since high school and--Christ, four years later he's still gay for him.





	1. wishing to be the friction in your jeans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter; Jason Grace, total nerd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! :0 thanks for reading!  
> This was v fun to write and i hope you guys like it too so i can post more chapters. I'm excited for the next one, tbh. I'm actually more of an artist than a writer, but this was fun. Pls go easy on me ;0;
> 
> Jason, Piper and Leo are all 19.

" _Hey internet. Percy Jackson here_."

There really wasn't much to it, Jason muses to himself as he drags his index finger downwards against the glass screen of his smart phone. His blue eyes follow the video titles and thumbnails in the suggestion column as he searches for a particular uploader's name after only just finishing the previous one.

Whenever Percy Jackson, with his tanned skin and pretty bluish green eyes even so much as appeared in the thumbnail of some video, Jason would click on it. Perhaps it was because Percy, ( _or as he was better known as; Percyouinhell_ ) was such a talented creator. It might have been because Jason had run out of content to watch and rewatch for hours on end. But then again, it was probably because Jason Grace was 100% unironically gay for Percy Jackson, who had a nice face and a nice personality and a very nice everything else.

Jason had first discovered Percy's channel quite a while ago; a few weeks into his sophomore year of high school. He had been immediately charmed by the handsome senior student from New York. Percy Jackson's videos by themselves had been Jason's inspiration to give making videos a try, making his own channel at one point of in his senior year of high school, with the help and encouragement of the at-the-time transferee Piper McLean, who is now one of Jason's closest friends.

Piper herself was a YouTuber, Jason starting only shortly after she had. She was a beauty guru and went by the name 'MCleanUpNice', and Jason had more than once made an appearance in her videos as either a guest star who was to be made fabulous, or a test dummy to laugh at. In turn, Piper would often appear in his videos along with their other friend, Leo Valdez, in humorous skits and advice giving videos, mostly laughing at him, or laughing at his audience. Sometimes, they would give actual, helpful advice, but Jason learned to not hope for that on a frequent basis.

After nearly two years of talking to a camera, Jason had gotten more comfortable with his audience as they did with him. And surely, he had adjusted to being recognized in the street on occasion, mostly with people thanking him for the life hacks and college tips he offered on his channel.

He particularly loved it when he'd hear from his audience that he helped improve someone's life, even by only a little bit. It brought joy to him that he was making little differences for the people who watched his videos. Eventually he set up a twitter account and an Instagram account, where he could interact with even more of his audience and give advice outside of his videos.

(He already had a Tumblr account prior to his channel, but he sure as hell won't be sharing that with his subscribers any time soon. Along with the slightly questionable humor and lame puns that he often reblogged, the blog was also 75% dedicated to reblogging gifsets and pictures of Percy Jackson and snippets of his videos. And well, Jason wasn't particularly keen as being outed as Percy trash just yet. He would go trending on at least one social media site.)

He shifts slightly on his bed then, makes himself comfortable against his faded red sheets, turning his fallen unopened bottle of Gatorade upright, because his last class of the day (Calculus!) had just ended and he was fully prepared to just relax and watch a few of his favorite Percyouinhell videos until his friends Leo and Piper came in to drag him to the dinner hall.

As one of Percyouinhell's more popular videos, "Do I Have ADHD?" was buffering, Jason heard a soft click, then the sound of the door swinging open to reveal-surprise!- a smiling Leo, and Piper walked just a few feet behind him, her favorite Starbucks vanilla latte drink in her hand. He paused the video just as the YouTuber was delivering his intro.

It was Leo who spoke first, taking in Jason, the snacks, and the bottle of Gatorade resting against the blond's side. "Whoops, did we interrupt another Percy-thon?" He wriggled his eyebrows at the blond, eyes sparkling with amusement. Jason rolled his eyes good-naturedly; both Leo and Piper frequently teased him about his 'obsession'.

( _His friends had seen too much to even try and deny anything at this point_.)

Piper was grinning, her smile wide with mirth. "Maybe we should leave him alone, Leo. You know how Jason gets when we don't let him spend quality time with his boyfriend." She jested, making her way to the blond and plucking the red phone from Jason's hands. Jason just let her, as he knew he wasn't going to be able to watch anything with these two looming over him. They had a knack for making fun of his 'dumb face' which apparently only made an appearance whenever he happened to be watching Percy's videos.

"I have done nothing to deserve this shaming." Jason groaned, slinging an arm over the right side of his face as he slumped against his bed frame dramatically.

Piper snorted. "Your audience begs to differ." The dark-haired girl tapped on the screen of Jason's phone a few times, redirecting it to Jason's latest video which he posted a few weeks ago. Jason took the device and scanned the latest comments. His audience had gone from a friendly 'you are a literal angel sent to help humanity' to 'It's been two weeks upload you rat'. It was quite a funny transition that Jason was not unused to, as he liked to keep it causal between himself and his audience. He liked bantering with them, but that was besides the point.

He stroked his chin "I suppose it has been a while." The longest he had gone without uploading was a month and his viewers had, so to say, not taken it well and bombarded him with questions when he had finally uploaded a new video. Leo had gotten a laugh out of that, being the only non-YouTuber in their trio.

The aforementioned non-YouTuber mimicked his action, humming. "Whatcha doing for this once, Jase?" Despite his talk of not being interested to start his own YouTube channel, Leo has always been 100% supportive and helpful when it came to making theirs, which both Jason and Piper greatly appreciated. Leo took the time out of his own daily schedule (he was majored in mechanical engineering, bless him.) and his part-time job as a mechanic at his mother's shop just to help his friends make videos for fun.

"I'm not sure yet." Jason replied, swinging his legs off the bed and slipping his feet into a pair of slippers readily waiting on the floor. He reached for his white laptop on the light beige desk next to his bed, which had been on standby. Opening a document titled 'Video Ideas (youtube)', the blond teen scanned the lines of video ideas he had pre-written.

Piper thought for a moment. "Y'know, I think another advice column video is in order. You forgot about it to post ' _Textbooks; how to actually use them_ '. Fans are wondering where it is." She reminded him.

Jason thought about it. His advice column videos were particularly fun to make, as it mostly considered him going though his google inbox for messages from his subscribers, then reacting and giving good advice accordingly. He always did his best to maintain a positive vibe throughout the whole filming process, and his audience were mostly happy to see him interacting with them. True to Piper's words, he had forgotten that one was due and mistakenly made and uploaded another video in its stead, focusing about textbooks.

(The 'textbook' idea came to him when Jason was studying with Connor Stoll and Will Solace in the library. Connor had taken one look at his hand-me-down textbook from his older brother, Travis, and hissed as words highlighted in clashing neon came to view. 'How the hell did that asshole study like this?!' Connor had whispered angrily. It was at that moment when the video idea hit Jason.)

"Advice for the crazy children it is, then." He conceded, turning to look at Piper and Leo. "Wanna watch me film, or?" He trailed off, nudging his head slightly to the door.

"Not today buddy, I'm pretty hungry." Leo stood up from the empty spare bed (it used to be his.) and patted his stomach. Jason smiled, Leo was always hungry as he was always always eating. The latino's metabolism was crazy fast and he usually spent his extra earned allowance to buy snacks and stuff. It was a wonder that he hasn't gained any weight. Piper sometimes jokingly referred to it as the ultimate superpower.

"I'll meet up with you guys in the dinner hall in a few hours, yeah?" Jason asked, waiting for confirmation.

Piper checked her watch. "It's a quarter to four right now," she started estimating Jason's filming process in her head. "I'll expect you to take a break at six or seven." She said, looking sharply at her blond friend. Piper had always been particular that they all get enough rest, and both Jason and Leo had long learned to not try to go against her. She was the mom friend for a reason. Jason would probably have to take tomorrow to film some parts too.

"Yes ma'am." Jason gave her a mock salute as she and Leo made their way out of the dorm. "Bye." He called out as he stood to go to his wardrobe. He saw Leo's hand give him a small wave goodbye before it slid out of the room, the door clicking shut with the same soft noise it made when they entered.

Opening the doors of his wardrobe, he plucked out a simple button up shirt, set it aside for convenience, and began setting up his fairly new camera; he had finally bought a upgrade from his old one after saving up for a few months. He positioned it towards his dorm bed, as a bedroom was quite a popular video spot for many YouTubers. Jason thought it added to the casual vibe he was going for, like talking with a friend on Skype. Expect that he would be talking to around 1,978,000 friends he didn't quite know but all of whom knew him.

Once his filming background was set up he tugged off his brown T-shirt and put on the button up. Truth be told, the button up was one of Jason's favorite garments, as he only wore dumb shirts and the like most of the time. Giving himself a look in the mirror, he made sure there was nothing stuck in his teeth as to not have to refilm an entire video.(that had happened once. A huge disaster, thanks to a piece of broccoli stuck on his right canine tooth. He ended up abandoning the video altogether after it not feeling genuine enough for his audience.)

Switching on the camera, he sat himself in on his bed and addressed the lens with a smile.

"'Hey guys, it's Jason."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are appreciated!! :0


	2. Are you ready for another bad poem?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First and foremost: Jason is a fanboy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 8/26/17, 1:13AM: Dead tired. Sorry for the late chapter, exams came up and I'm afraid i had to prioritize those :( Also, I'm half asleep writing this and i will go over the chapter once again in the later morning for mistakes.

"--And aunt Christine would be all 'oh Piper, its a shame you never bring anyone with you to these types of things. Any boy would be lucky to have you." Piper said, half rolling her eyes as she made her voice unnaturally high. "I mean yeah she's literally the nicest aunt I've met at those things but it would nice if she understood that I have the same amount of desire for me as i do for cats."

Jason was only half-listening, more out of obligation if nothing else. Piper's infamous family reunions happened every year, and while that means she got a week off school, it wasn't particularly an experience she looked forward to, which Jason can understand as to why. Between being a lesbian and having older relatives being unable to understand that making YouTube videos did not equate to being a porn star, Piper was never the favorite niece.

Weeks nearing the the third week of October were always filled with Piper complaining about having to go to the dumb thing. Her father offers every year that she could stay behind while he himself attends the (honestly too often-occuring) reunion, yet every year Piper finds herself being unable to let her father go through the damned thing alone.

Jason, who didn't even have hope to one day have such a good relationship with his parents, gets hit with a ache of jealousy at the fact that Piper’s dad gave her choices. It was never the same with Zeus and Cheryll, whom Jason couldn't even speak around sometimes, in the very low and continuous terror that they’d somehow turn talking or telling a joke into a mortal sin that would both ruin your life and send you to hell.

But, if asked, Piper would count the reasons off with her perfectly manicured fingers:

One.) Her father would probably leave her with Rachel, his secretary. Which wasn't all that bad, Rachel was lovely. But she also never shut up about her wife and five year old daughter, and Piper didn't think she could stand a week of listening to continuous updates on to how Mio and Kaye were doing.

Two.) Piper would not leave her father to deal with the anther nosy family they were unfortunate enough to be a part of. An example of this lack of tact was her grandmother, who had once plainly questioned her on how she knew she didn't like boys, if she hadn't tried them.

(Jason had choked on his iced tea as Piper recalled the experience to him. Leo, on the other hand completely lost it like the ten year old he was inside. "It's-Its just--" The Latino managed to say between waves of laughter. "She actually wants you to _try_ having sex with men. Like its a food you don't like or something.")

And lastly, three.) He might return. It was a sort of urban legend that happened around when Piper was ten. One of her relatives managed to set fire to three tables and proceeded to parkour the fuck out of there. As the incident happened away from her, Piper couldn't get a good look at the guy (or gal), and she never saw him again.

Leo had theorized that it might even not be a relative of hers, instead just being some guy who snuck in for the food. Either way, it was Jason's favorite out of Piper's family reunion stories.

It was a total of two weeks before the much dreaded reunion and here Jason was, doing what any good friend would do; listening to Piper's woes about the damn thing. On a good note, it seemed that she was finishing up her rants by the time Jason came backs to reality. Leo was currently already beating his high score on flappy bird on Jason's phone ('waste your own battery life, man.' Jason thought.), which he had hidden under the lunch table they were currently at, as if they were in a lecture.

(It didn't have to be a boring lecture, Leo was one of those people who could never focus on one thing for a long time.)

Jason nudged Leo with his knee as Piper laid her cheek on the cool wooden surface of the table in defeat, saying something along the lines of 'screw them, I'll being home a girlfriend they couldn't possibly have anything bad to say about.'

"Aw Pipes, its only for a week, and you only have to see them for... what? Two days out of seven?" Leo said encouragingly, to Jason's surprise. He apparently was lowkey listening to her while playing. "Where is it this time, anyway?" He asked, sliding Jason's phone (screen side up, thankfully) back to the blond.

Piper made a considering gesture with her shoulders. "New York." She said, then threw a shit-eating grin at Jason. "Maybe I'll run into your boyfriend or something!" She exclaimed, delighted at the concept. Leo had laughed, like he was expecting this.

"Ack!" Jason straightened up. "Please, take me with you. I can be your fake boyfriend or something." He said jokingly, until he saw the look on Piper's face.

Like she was seriously considering it.

"Piper." Jason said slowly, as if speaking to a child. "That was a joke."

"Would've been funny though." Leo commented, placing a hand to his chin mock-thoughtfully.

"C'mon Jason. Take one for the team." Piper reached forward, grabbing Jason's hoodie-clad shoulder. Leo seemed oddly invested in this as well.

Jason turned his attention to the shorter teen. "What do you even have to gain for this?" He asked weakly.

The Latino in question only grinned. "I have a lot to gain from this. It sounds like something I'd tell my future grandchildren." He leaned back a bit and made a 'okay, imagine' gesture with his hands. Making his voice purposefully old sounding, he continued. "Have I ever told you about the time aunt Piper and aunt Jason tried to pass as a couple? Quite the laugh, yes, yes." He laughed again, breaking his grandpa persona.

"First of all, why am I an aunt?" Jason squinted as he pushed his glasses back up.

"You should be grateful to be an aunt." Leo reasoned, but shrugged. "I'm not even sure it should even be aunts? I mean you're friends with me, not my future kids. Great-aunts it is, then." He concluded.

Piper looked at both of them. "...Anyways." She said. "If you're not serious ('I never was, Piper.') about going to accompany me to judgement day, you could... buy me an ice cream?" She tried.

Normally, Jason would answer, 'no, Piper. Buy your own shit.' But for some reason, he wanted to. Perhaps it was because he was in the mood for ice cream too. "Alright, fine." He said. "Just this once."

"Oooh!" Leo exclaimed, the way he did whenever food was involved. "Buy a large tub and we can split the bill." He offered. "We can rewatch Frozen at my place. We're all free later, right?"

"I am." Piper said, looking, well, looking like she was already looking forward to it.

Jason rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'll drop by with the ice cream in a few."

—————

Barely twenty minutes later, Jason could say that he has never been so _shook_ in his whole life.

(And that includes the time when he tried watching figure skating championships with Piper. Now that was a afternoon to remember. Quads were landed, boners were sprung, sexualities; questioned. It had been… Well, it had been a day.)

_The_ GhostKing stood in the aisle in just a few feet in front of him. He was looking at tomato sauce. Jason didn't now what to do first; scream at him, or scream at his terrible choice of tomato sauce brand.

Had Jason been with company, they may have said something along the lines of ‘Let the man buy his goddamned groceries, Jason’. Perhaps Jason would listen and calmly walk away to buy his own food. Unfortunately, realistically, Jason would probably turn frantically to whoever he was with and say; “You don't understand; Nico di Angelo lives in New York!”

( _They were in fucking California_.)

So you couldn't really blame Jason for screaming and startling the poor dude half to death. Really, you couldn't. It wasn't everyday that Jason would just run into big name YouTubers on the street, especially if they didn't even live anywhere close to the area.

GhostKing, or as his real name goes; Nico di Angelo, was currently one of the hottest (to clarify, most _popular_ ) cover artists on YouTube. A good number of what he made were rock covers, and while it might have not been Jason’s cup of tea when he was younger, he quickly grew to love the genre the longer he went through Nico’s videos. With a whooping four-point-something million subscribers, Nico was clearly amazing at what he did. He was one of those people who even had his own artists’ profile on Spotify, an app that Jason frequently sees Piper using, but never got around to downloading, himself.

Point being: Nico di Angelo was amazingly talented, and Jason was also a fan, and now the cover artist himself was standing in front of him, dark black eyes (is that eyeliner?) wide and accusing. His aesthetic was definitely on point; the whole ‘emo boy on the run’ look with the black rings and the pale skin and the brown, vintage-looking bomber jacket. He was much taller than Jason imagined him to be, which made the blond just the slightest bit uncomfortable.

Di Angelo was also clearly embarrassed, if the flush on his face was anything to go by. Jason didn't know whether the other YouTuber was embarrassed by Jason or for Jason, who had screamed both first and higher. From an entertainer’s standpoint, it was hilarious, Jason could agree. But from the perspective of a random guy in walmart, Jason was mortified at what he’d done.

“Christ.” Nico let out a breath, seemingly letting down his guard ever so slightly, apparently deciding that Jason was not a screaming banshee that he needed to skidoo the fuck away from. “Warn a guy before you start screaming, would you?” He snapped, looking rather grumpy at being caught off guard. Jason guesses tomato sauce does that to you. Oddly enough to point out though, was that Nico didn't seem all too bothered that a random civilian was screaming at him in the first place, so Jason idly wondered how often this happened to the poor guy. He was—what, 19?

“Jesus, you scared me.” Nico muttered again, more to himself. That left only an awkward silence to follow.

Before he could stop himself, Jason spoke, hoping to fill the silence. “It's Jason.” He mentally smacked himself upside his head. Nico didn't ask for his name. It probably wasn't long before this conversation ended up too humiliating to ever look at Nico without cringing ever again, which also meant that Jason could never show his stupid face on YouTube ever again. He had to fix this before he had to delete his channel. “I mean uh, my name. Its Jason. Not Jesus.”

_Silence_.

“What.” The dark haired teen squinted at him.

‘Time to jump off a building, it seems.’ Was all Jason could think.

Nico looked like he was experiencing many clashing emotions at once, some of which Jason identified as pity and embarrassment. Nico was so done and Jason couldn't believe how well it shows on his face. “I’m so sorry.” Jason managed to say, humiliated and ready to leave the building. Perhaps buy a noose on his way out.

“This is the most embarrassing day of my life.” Nico said sparing a quick glance at his smart phone to check the time. “I’m not even at the end of it.“

“I’ve got a few ideas on how to end the day quickly.” Jason muttered darkly, more to himself than at Nico. _Huh. Would you look at that,_ dark humor and morbid jokes _were_ his defense mechanism.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment! :) I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter!! It'd really help me with the next one :0


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